Doctone » Conditions and Diseases

Will Breast Tumors Go Away Without Treatment

tonks — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 01:08:42 +0000

A new article published in the Archives of Internal Medicine asks a very controversial question. Do breast cancer tumors go away on their own? In order to try to prove or disprove this theory researchers performed a study. The article shows that at least one type of cancer that was discovered through screening sometimes will disappear. Neoroblastoma is a very rare childhood tumor.

During the study Norwegian and American researchers compared the amount of breast cancers that were found in over 100,000 Norwegian women who were being screened every two years. These women also received only one mammogram after six years. Women who have cancer and are screened an a more frequent basis have a better chance of being diagnosed early.

But the authors stated that both of their strategies should show the same number of cancers. However, doctors found 22% more breast cancers in women who received more frequent mammograms.

This increases the possibility that these mammograms discovered cancers that over time went away and did not need any treatment, says co-author H. Gilbert Welch of the VA Outcomes Group in White River Junction, Vt. Other experts have argued over the findings of this study and believe that mammograms have been proven to save many lives. The American Cancer Society urges women to receive annual screenings after they have turned 40.

Robert Smith from the cancer society believes that there are several reasons why women who are screened more often have a higher chance of being diagnosed with cancer. A single scan can miss small tumors – but many doctors have an easier time of finding cancers on repeat mammograms when they have the ability to compare the new results with older images. “It’s important that people not wonder if women lost their breasts for no reason,” Smith says. “That’s reprehensible conjecture.”

14 Year Old Survives Four Months Without Heart

tonks — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:41:53 +0000

14 year old D’Zhana Simmons is not your ordinary teenager. Last Spring she and her parents discovered that she had an enlarged heart that was not strong enough to pump blood. The only way that she would be able to survive is with a heart transplant. So she and her family traveled from their home in Clinton, South Carolina to Holtz Children’s Hospital in Miami, Florida.

A cardiothoracic surgeon at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh – Dr. Peter Wearden – said that the decision to use the artificial pumps was “a big deal”. “For (more than) 100 days, there was no heart in this girl’s body? That is pretty amazing,” Wearden said.

D’Zhana said that for 118 days that she had no heart she felt like a “fake person”. “But I know that I really was here,” the 14-year-old said, “and I did live without a heart.” The young teen lived on the pumps for a total of four months in between two transplants.

What Is Anorexia

tonks — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:48:39 +0000

Anorexia is an eating disorder. People who suffer from anorexia will starve themselves because they feel they are too fat when compared with today’s society. Anorexia can affect anyone of any age – but it usually starts around the age puberty.

Those who suffer from this eating disorder will have extreme weight loss that can be 15% below the person’s natural body weight. They are very skinny – but they still feel that they are overweight. Some will lose weight by using laxatives, too much exercise, or not eating enough.

Anorexics have the fear that they will become fat and this fear will cause them too lose the weight and to lose it quickly. It can often lead to them becoming very ill and even dying. Because they are not eating enough their bodies are not getting the nutrients they need to survive and certain systems may shut down completely.

This eating disorder is more common in teenage girls that are in high society who feel that they are always being judged. Also young girls who dance, distance running, and theatre and feel that it is required to be thin.

Health Experts Campaign Against Tanning Industry

tonks — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 21:07:26 +0000

Health experts have are putting together a campaign against the tanning industry. According to the campaign the tanning industry portrays indoor tanning beds and sunbathing a safe practice and even goes so far as to say that it is good for the health of consumers.

President of the Society of Melanoma Research – David E. Fisher – argued that there is no such thing as a safe tan. He and his colleagues accused the industry of misleading consumers concerning the health benefits of tanning. “This effort to portray tanning and tanning beds as good for health ignores the fact that exposure to ultraviolet radiation represents one of the most avoidable causes of cancer,” Fisher tells WebMD. “There is no question that this exposure causes thousands of skin cancer deaths a year.”

The Indoor Tanning Association launched a nationwide campaign next Spring and a full page ad in the New York Times – which questioned the connection between sun exposure and the deadly skin cancer. The ad went on to claim that tanning allows for good health by increasing levels of vitamin D.

The exposure to ultraviolet light helps the body to produce vitamin D. Research shows that vitamin D helps to protect the body from many diseases. “Both the sun and tanning beds have been unnecessarily demonized by special interests using junk science and scare tactics,” International Tanning Association spokeswoman Sarah Longwell said.

Fisher admits that the exposure to UV rays when connected to melanoma has not been fully understood – but he believes that the tanning industry is wrong in saying that there is no link at all between the two. “Whereas genetic and other factors undoubtedly contribute importantly to skin cancer risk, the role of UV is incontrovertible, and efforts to confuse the public, particularly for the purposes of economic gain by the indoor tanning industry, should be vigorously combated for the public health,” Fisher and colleagues write in the October issue of Pigment Cell & Melanoma Research.

Vaccine To Cure Breast Cancer

tonks — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:53:17 +0000

Researchers have been working on an experimental breast cancer vaccine and in the process have been able to create one that is more effective. They have hope that this new vaccine will give the patient a cancer fighting gene that will place itself into the infected cells. This will then create immune system proteins that will destroy the tumor.

“In our own mind it is a very significant advance because we have put the gene into the cells in the body. The vaccine is produced by your own cells,” Wei-Zen Wei of Wayne State University in Detroit, who led the study, said in a telephone interview. “It is made right in your body.”

Tests have shown that the vaccine has the capability to remove tumors in mice from a type of cancer known as HER2 positive cancer. HER2 positive cancer is 20 – 30% of breast cancers. The test also showed the vaccine destroy tumors that had developed a resistance to drugs that were designed to fight them.

Wei’s team created a vaccine using what they call naked DNA from genes that have the ability to produce the HER2 receptor – this is the molecular signal for the breast cancer tumors. They combined this DNA with an immune system stimulant and placed it into a ring of genetic material – which they called a plasmid. The plasmid came from a bacterium.

They then used a process that is known as electro oration. This process uses an electrical pulse to force the compound through the muscle and skin so that it can properly immunize the mice test subjects. Once the compound was safely in the leg muscles the genes would travel to cells where they would then begin to create HER2 receptors. These receptors activated immune cells called killer T-cells and antibodies.
“The immune system goes around the body to look for cancer cells,” Wei said.

When they then injected HER2-positive breast tumors into the mice, their bodies eradicated them. “Both tumor cells that respond to current targeted therapies and those that are resistant to these treatments were eradicated,” Wei said. “This may be an answer for women with these tumors who become resistant to the current therapies.”